Paddle Pop Young Builders Award 2017

Moving towards its fifth year, the Paddle Pop Young Builders Award was launched with “Unity for a Greener Future” as its theme. It is an annual national competition targeted at primary school children, that promotes environmental awareness as kids design and build creative structures made from used and recyclable materials.

The Paddle Pop Young Builders Award 2017 is a platform to educate primary school kids on the various materials that can be reused, repurposed and recycled in fun and innovative ways. This year, the participants’ design must exhibit how the chosen structure is enhanced with local elements that promote unity within a school environment while promoting the message on the importance of a greener future.

Shiv Sahgal, Marketing Director, Foods & Refreshment, Unilever (Malaysia) Holdings Sdn Bhd. emphasizing on the importance of recycling that should be nurtured from an early age at the launch of Young Builders Award 2017

According to Mr Shiv Sahgal, Marketing Director, Foods and Refreshment, Unilever (Malaysia) Holdings Sdn Bhd, “The Paddle Pop Young Builders Award challenges young minds in the hopes of unleashing their creativity to bring a new lease of life to materials that would otherwise be thrown away thoughtlessly. We hope that this year’s theme where participants have to build a robot with everyday waste materials where the robot’s purpose is to monitor and keep the school environment green in a fun and innovative way. This will help drive the message of a greener future that goes beyond just the immediate participants but to the whole school as well.”

Last year, a record-breaking number of 1009 entries were received from schools across Malaysia, which was an increase of 400% as compared to the year before.

Puan Elliza Hashim, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Art & Design Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), Shah Alam explaining on the robot structure that was built using recyclable material by her team that indicates the theme for this year’s Young Builders Award.

At the launch event, a life-size robot designed and created by the Art and Design faculty of UiTM team was unveiled to highlight Paddle Pop Young Builders Award 2017’s theme and be an inspiration to interested participants. The structure which was led by Senior Lecturer, Elliza Hashim described that the robot comprises of various used materials of plastics, paper based boards and some discarded fabrics. The robot, named Tuah, is meant to be stationed in schools to monitor the recycling habits of kids. It has a set of multi-terrain wheels which portray a very hardworking robot on a mission to scavenge waste materials and ensure that it is properly recycled. It has almost human-like arm function to pick up things and work productively. Tuah also has a set of gadgets like a blaster gun to recycle waste items brought to him by kids wanting to recycle. He will then reward the kids with Paddle Pop ice cream. Tuah is dedicated to help schools contribute to a greener future.

[From L - R] Shawn Tan, Category Head of Wall’s Ice Cream, Unilever (Malaysia) Holdings Sdn Bhd., Shiv Sahgal, Marketing Director, Foods & Refreshment, Unilever (Malaysia) Holdings Sdn Bhd., Dato’ P.Kamalanathan, Deputy Education Minister I, Ministry of Education, Puan Rozainum binti Ahmad, Director of Co-Curicular & Arts Division and Paddle Pop Lion launching the new theme for Paddle Pop Young Builders Award 2017: Unity for a Greener Future.

The Paddle Pop Young Builders Award 2017 seeks to find the most creatively crafted life-size robot structure fully made from used and recyclable materials that also represents local elements of Malaysia and the participant’s respective states in conjunction with the country’s 60th National Day.

The award is open to all national primary schools for kids in Standard 4 to 6. Schools can submit as many sketches of the robot they would like to build with the national and state’s identity in the design concept by 23 June 2017 to yba@paddlepop.com.my. The sketch must incorporate how the materials will be used. The top 20 designs will be chosen to build their life-size robot at a 3Day/2Night all-expense paid finale to be held in August at a venue to be determined at a later date.

Dato’ P.Kamalanathan, Deputy Education Minister I, Ministry of Education at National Planetarium, Kuala Lumpur cheering with the students of SK SERI HARTAMAS during the launch of Paddle Pop Young Builders Award 2017.

For more information or to download the contest form, teachers, kids and parents are encouraged to visit www.paddlepop.com.my.